Personal information and business know-how are often saved in the storage device and recording medium of a computer as files in an electronic data format. It is important to acquire and strictly manage the history of access to the files, in particular, the history of the monitoring, editing, copying, printing, and transmission of the files. For example, an insurance company distributes restoration manuals to authorized personnel in the event of a disaster. The restoration manual is a collection of know-how and has an extremely high information value. The leakage or copying of the restoration manuals which are distributed offline is therefore undesirable.
In addition, manufacturers distribute product specifications and designs to authorized personnel. It is desirable to avoid leaking product specifications and designs which are confidential information to the outside so that the product specifications and designs are not seen by parties other than the authorized personnel. During the proofreading of publications or the like, the original electronic data are changed, and it is desirable to avoid leaking the original or proofread electronic data to the outside. It is likewise desirable to avoid leaking the original or edited electronic data such as photograph image data or other image data.
In order to meet such needs, management systems which manage files which have been saved in electronic data format have conventionally been proposed in the form of a variety of systems. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a document total management system which comprehensively implements the confidentiality of print data which are sent and received via a network system and improves the traceability of printed document data.
The document integrated management system is comprising a document management server which performs authentication of an administrator with access rights, the setting of access rights, and the authentication of users who access documents and holds document management information; a printer server which is an information processing device such as a PC that is used by a user, and performs authentication in cases where the user designates document printing together with authentication of the user and performs the generation of a print watermark and management of a print log; and a printer which performs authentication of the recipient of printed matter and prints documents which are sent by the printer server. The document integrated management system further comprises a copy server which manages the copy logs and manages the copy watermarks, and manages copy documents, and a copier which extracts the watermarks, authenticates the person doing the copying, and copies documents.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-280227
A user often records user data on a portable storage device or recording medium and supplies same to their client. Having received the user data, the client generally performs work by utilizing the user data and returns the work results and the portable storage device or recording medium to the user.
However, the client is able to freely copy and edit the user data recorded on the portable storage device or recording medium. The prevention of copying of the user data recorded on the portable storage device or recording medium to parties other than authorized personnel and the management of the user data are important to the user.